<p>SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria — </p>
<p>The first men’s World Cup downhill following the world championships was stopped Friday because of fog after nine racers had completed their runs.</p>
<p>Low clouds in the upper part of the Schneekristal course initially forced organizers to use a reserve start lower down the hill. They interrupted the race when the fog bank moved down the mountain and affected visibility for the racers.</p>
<p>Snowfall in the middle section was also getting denser.</p>
<p>The race was called off 1½ hours after its start as conditions failed to improve.</p>
<p>Italian skier Dominik Paris was leading Vincent Kriechmayr by seven-hundredths of a second when it was stopped. The Austrian won the downhill and super-G world titles last month.</p>
<p>Matthias Mayer, Kriechmayr’s teammate, was 0.65 seconds off the lead in third, while Beat Feuz was more than a second behind in fourth. The Swiss skier leads Mayer and Paris in the discipline standings with two events remaining.</p>
<p>The race was a replacement for the classic downhill in Wengen, Switzerland, which was canceled in January amid the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p>Another downhill at the Austrian venue, which will host the 2025 world championships, is scheduled for Saturday. The weather was expected to improve overnight.</p>
<hr />
<p>More AP skiing: <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/skiing">https://apnews.com/hub/skiing</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Sports">https://twitter.com/AP_Sports</a></p>
